Health care
BY BRITTANY ANDERSON
BY GRACE DICKENS
Local groups target nursing shortages
Baylor Scott & White launches Epilepsy Center in Lakeway
Looking ahead
Looking ahead
ABSN graduate Michael Guerrero said exposure to nursing, such as career fairs, at the K-12 level is key. “Letting them get to touch medical equipment that nurses get to use. ... To put it into their hands so they can have something tangible and kind of view themselves doing it, I think that was huge for me,” Guerrero said. Central Texas Healthcare Partnership’s K-12 initiatives include: Its biannual Nursing Academy, where high schoolers participate in interactive nursing labs Observation clinical placements at local hospitals, where high schoolers rotate through several di erent units Informational sessions for teachers and counselors so they know about in- demand jobs
To be admitted to the center, individuals must be referred from an outpatient clinic. It takes around 10 years on average for doctors to determine whether an epilepsy patient will respond to medications or must be referred to a specialist, Montoya said. The new center aims to decrease that timeframe through education and improved access, Montoya said.
A handful of Austin-area institutions are working to combat projected nursing shortages with special programs. Texas will experience a shortage of 56,370 registered nurses by 2036, according to the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies. While there is a “huge interest” in nursing, and students are applying, there are a limited number of spots, said Ashley King, Workforce Solutions Capital Area’s director of healthcare partnerships. “We have 10 di erent schools of nursing here in Austin. ... All of those programs are looking to expand,” King said. One local program to address that is at Concordia University Texas. In fall 2024, Concordia will provide a $10,000 Workforce Development Scholarship for all eligible students toward its Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
Austin nursing school graduates Through WSCA’s partnership with local hospitals, nursing graduates across all ten Austin-area nursing programs have risen.
Doctors at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Lakeway opened a new center in mid- May to help tackle epilepsy, one of the most common problems in neurology. The new center is led by Dr. Victor Montoya and Dr. Diego Tovar, two fellowship-trained epileptologists. The center o ers four hardwired inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit beds alongside two mobile units. While mobile units are used to monitor seizures, doctors can use hardwired units to classify the type of seizure and develop customized care plans, Tovar and Montoya said. “Each patient’s epileptic condition is di erent, and therefore the treatment plan should be individualized,” Tovar said.
By the numbers
1 in 26 people develop epilepsy at some point in life
1,200 1,000
3 million Americans of all ages are a ected by epilepsy
800 600 400 0
Around 200,000 new cases of seizures and epilepsy recorded annually
“We have a lot of needs in terms of neurological care in our region.” DR. VICTOR MONTOYA, EPILEPSY CENTER CO LEADER
30% of epilepsy cases can’t be resolved by medication
About 1 million patients do not nd relief from seizures or experience side e ects
*DATA WAS UNAVAILABLE DURING 2019 20 DUE TO COVID 19.
SOURCE: EPILEPSY FOUNDATION TEXAS COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS CAPITAL AREA COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS CAPITAL AREA COMMUNITY IMPACT
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